NewsWrap
for the week ending February 23, 2002
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #726, distributed 2-25-02)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge,
Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon]
Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Brian Nunes
In the U.S., Massachusetts' highest court this week threw out a legal
challenge to two state sodomy laws, but in the process made comments that are
expected to limit or even eliminate their enforcement. The group Gay &
Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, GLAD, believes those laws have been
selectively enforced against gay men in police raids on cruising areas. GLAD
brought the lawsuit on behalf of nine plaintiffs, including a married
heterosexual couple, seeking clarification on their possible prosecution if
they had oral or anal sex in "[a] wooded outdoor area, vehicles parked in
parking lots, and secluded areas of public beaches". The state's Supreme
Judicial Court technically rejected the case because none of those plaintiffs
are currently facing prosecution. But the justices unanimously endorsed a
decision stating for the first time that the laws should not be applied to
consensual acts, as long as the individuals involved attempt to avoid being
seen by others. The two laws were first adopted more than 300 years ago.
One prescribes sentences of up to five years for an "unnatural and lascivious
act" -- including oral sex -- while the other punishes what it calls the
"abominable and detestable crime against nature" -- anal sex -- with up to 20
years' imprisonment.
Some local authorities in the UK are reportedly very interested in a new
approach to stopping sex in public restrooms. Healthmatic is marketing a
system of weight sensors for cubicle floors to detect the presence of more
than 24 stone -- 336 pounds or about 740 kilograms. While weight
distribution supposedly allows the sensors to pass on a parent assisting a
child, individuals who exceed the weight limit must obtain a key to override
the system. One system has already been installed at a beach in the Scottish
city of Ayr.
Britain's Queen Elizabeth shook hands with the world's first transsexual
Member of Parliament as she began a visit to New Zealand this week. For the
receiving line at Wellington airport, Georgina Beyer wore white raukura
feathers in her hair, as women of the native Te Atiawa tribe do to signify
peace, love and goodwill. Beyer, who has met the Queen twice before, said
she was proud to be part of the group welcoming her. An aide to New
Zealand's Governor-General was overheard telling Prince Philip of Beyer,
"Yeah, she's had the full chop!"
U.S. transgender activist Sylvia Rivera died this week of liver cancer at
age 50. She was a high-profile participant in the 1969 uprising at New York
City's Stonewall Inn that's considered the birth of the modern movement for
lesbian and gay rights, and she continued to be a strong voice demanding full
inclusion of transgenders in that movement. Rivera founded two shelters for
transgenders and worked at a community food pantry. She is survived by her
partner Julia Murray.
The Presbyterian Church USA will retain its ban on ordination for
non-celibate gays and lesbians, as a proposal to amend it was defeated this
week. In 1997, the 3.6-million-member church officially adopted the
requirement that its clergy, deacons and elders maintain "fidelity within the
covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness."
Last year, the church's General Assembly voted to strike it. But
ratification of that amendment by the church's 173 regional presbyteries
failed this week when South Louisiana became the 87th presbytery to vote
against it.
Jesse Helms, long the U.S. Senate's leading homophobe, announced an
astonishing turnaround on AIDS this week. At a conference organized by the
global Christian charity Samaritan's Purse, Helms said, "[I'm] so ashamed
that I've done so little... I have been too lax too long in doing something
really significant about AIDS. I'm not going to lay it aside on my agenda
for the remaining months I have." Helms will be retiring at the end of the
year. He credited his change to a meeting with Bono of the band U2.
Previously the North Carolina Republican had vehemently opposed federal
funding for AIDS, blaming the disease on what he called gay men's
"deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct." That kind of rhetoric led two
of his constituents whose sons had died of AIDS to found the group Mothers
Against Jesse in Congress. One of them, Patsy Clarke, said she was "knocked
off [her] seat" by the news and that, "I really never thought I' would live
to see the day."
Also making a big about-face this week was Northern Ireland's Gerry Adams.
Adams told London's "Sunday Times" that he is urging the Sinn Fein party to
join the campaign for gay and lesbian civil rights, after years of vocal
opposition to them. He said, "I think people of the same gender have the
right to marry and to have a family." He specifically called for equal
inheritance rights for gay and lesbian partners and for equal treatment of
gay men by insurance companies.
The Justice Minister of the Canadian province of Quebec this week called
for full parental rights to be included in his Government's bill to create
registered partnerships for gays and lesbians. Quebec Justice Minister Paul
Begin said he would be proposing parental rights to the Parti Quebecois
Government because "No children should ever be ashamed of their parents."
Parental rights were a key demand in public hearings on the bill. Coalition
of Gays and Lesbians of Quebec director Claudine Ouellet called the
announcement historic.
However, some gays and lesbians in the province oppose registered
partnerships as counter to their demands for full equal marriage rights.
Canada's national group EGALE, Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere,
this week presented petitions for marriage rights signed by 15,000 people to
five Members of Parliament, including open gays Svend Robinson of the New
Democratic Party and Real Menard of the Bloc Quebecois.
An openly gay President would be acceptable to nearly 3/4 of French
citizens, according to a major opinion poll released this week. None of the
Presidential candidates in upcoming elections are believed to be gay,
although Paris elected open gay Bertrand DelanoŽ as its mayor last year. The
findings of the SOFRES poll of a representative sample of 1,000 French adults
were remarkable for their contrast with previous similar polls. This year
73% said they would accept a gay President, while just five years ago that
number was only 46%. Twenty years ago, 30% were accepting.
On the flip side, this year only 26% were "shocked" by the idea of a gay
President, while five years ago 52% were. Twenty years ago, 61% were
"shocked".
No one expects an openly gay politician to succeed anytime soon in Panama,
but gays there do enjoy a brief moment of visibility in February during
Carnival. In Panama City's Carnival parade, their floats included the
feathered carriage of their own Carnival queen, drag artist Ana Carolina.
And although the nation's lesbian and gay organization Asociacion Hombres y
Mujeres Nuevos de Panama was denied legal registration, the government this
year approved gay Carnival floats and queens in two provincial cities as
well. There's also been a growing gay representation in Panamanian
television, with several soap operas introducing gay characters last year and
the open gay known as Harold hosting a weekly current affairs show.
Partying is on the upswing as well in the Polish capital, Warsaw. In the
last six months five new gay and lesbian clubs have opened, where there had
been only two before.
Slovenia will be represented at May's EuroVision Song Contest by a trio of
transvestites. The group Sestre, The Sisters, won that honor by a single
point in this past weekend's national EMA contest, as they performed their
song "Only Love" while clad in red stewardess outfits. [*"Only Love" excerpt
plays for about :25, then down and under:] At least one Slovenian activist
believes the song addresses gay love, with its lyric, "There are many ways in
life, don't look for happiness where there is none, just listen to your
heart. ... Look into my eyes and stop worrying. I know you feel the same way
as I do. What you desire is not a sin. It's love."
This year's EuroVision, expected to draw a TV audience of 70-million, will be
staged in Estonia, making it the first to be held in a former Iron Curtain
country. But it won't be the first to have a transgender entry -- Israel's
Dana International won the contest in 1998.
And finally... staff at the New York Aquarium have learned that what they
called "one of the most dedicated couples in the penguin enclosure" are both
male. Black-footed penguins Wendell and Cass are 14 years old and have been
a couple for eight years. There's no way to distinguish the birds' sex from
the outside, so it had been assumed they were a heterosexual pair since the
more aggressive Cass had always been the top. After a staffer observed
Wendell taking the lead instead, a blood test was ordered that "outed" the
couple. The devoted couple sleep in the same nest, and like many other New
Yorkers they've had to defend it -- the penguin keeper said that "It seems to
be one of the most desirable places in the penguin enclosure."